The Tigress and The Leech
by ShiNoMadoushi
Summary: Minerva's pride was shattered that fateful day; she lost the competition to the former strongest guild in Fiore and lost the closest thing she had to friends—her guildmates. Now all alone, Minerva lives the rest of her days in sorrow. One day, when a strange young man saves her from death, she opens up to him and he gives her something no one has ever given her—friendship.


A lone tigress sat in the remains of a once-honorable guild—declared strongest guild for seven years in a row until X791—her face covered with black streaks and smeared lipstick. She slammed her fists against a growing pool of tears and mucous, not knowing how to deal with her loneliness, and grumbled after a few hopeless attempts at finding a way to cope with it. Frustrated, she scrambled from the corner of the dank room to the center, tossing aside dollhouses with pink chipped painting and cars with stickers of rainbows on them. She reached for a lone teddy bear nestled at the edge of her bed, its stuffing protruding outward from its ripped head.

Slowly, as if the teddy bear was a bonfire that would burn her skin on contact, she clutched the teddy bear and squeezed it until the small, heart-shaped voice box inside it faintly said _I love you_. She continued to hear those words she had longed for until the battery ran out, which wasn't too long afterwards. She stroked the bear's brown fur as the noise completely died out, being replaced by Minerva's interminable sobbing. After giving the bear a kiss on the head, Minerva curled up next to a picture of her ex-guildmates and reminisced for a few seconds about the times when she had others around her, but was unloved. Dressing herself with a green and yellow butterfly striped blanket, for solitude was a cold, abysmal place, Minerva began to close her eyes and hope that happiness would be found in her dreams.

A young man walked through a conglomerate path, his hair sanguineous like the blood that seeped through his bandaged left arm. He wore saintly white robes, robes befitting only those who have acquired the status of sage, and walked around barefoot for some reason. Apparently, he didn't mind stepping on those jagged, sun-broiled stones on the road nor did he mind walking through the stinging nettle that hugged the road on both sides. He might even walk through lava, if it impeded him, for nothing can stop him once he set his mind on something.

He passed by a splintery wooden sign that was planted irregularly, tilted toward the ground to the east rather than to the north. He picked up the ebony sign and placed it properly for anyone who wanted to know where the Zetsubo swamp was, though usually those people are insane and don't even know _how _to read, having been sent there to rot in the area's plague-ridden waters. Regardless, the young man continued down the road, beginning to see thorny black vines wrapped around decaying organisms—characteristic foliage of the Zetsubo swamp.

The terrain was starting become more and more defiled with each step, much to the amusement of the young man. He had walked from a verdant meadow filled with brightly colored magnolias that sprayed hallucinogenic pollen to a tainted land where venomous, man-eating flytraps and giant, blood-sucking pests thrived. Strangely, the land reminded him of his home.

The man approached an infested puddle and with his hands cupped, he took a sip of the viscous amaranthine liquid that was in it. It would be ludicrous to drink from such an impure source, but the man's magic prevented any toxin from fatally harming his body. He licked the droplet that dropped from the tip of his nose to his tongue.

With a sly smile, he dressed his head with the hood of his robes and walked forward into a larger pool of disease. Dead trees inhabited this area, so the man needed to execute caution when walking lest he trip on one of the dense roots that pervaded in this area. As he walked slowly into the thick swamp, his body sinking into the putrid black marsh, he felt the nibble of leeches, which dug into his skin desperately to feed. Oddly, the blood-sucking sensation felt good on his feet, perhaps even orgasmic to him. He enjoyed the cold, muscular contraction that the leeches had made just to take out his blood. In fact, he has always enjoyed those black little creatures and didn't mind giving pieces of his life to sustain them.

Once he had enough leeches on his legs, he exited the swamp and began to walk westward in the direction of the wind. There was no home for him anymore and even if there was, he wouldn't go there; he was more of a naturalist and preferred to wander the world endlessly.

Westward took the man into an area nearly devoid of vegetation with mountainous rock formations and steep, spiraling cliffs; it made him dizzy just looking at the altitudes. He slowly took a step into the scalding rock so as to to not damage the leeches and carefully walked into the labyrinthine canyon. He gazed at the rattlesnakes that reared their diamond-shaped heads and rattled from behind the rocks. Knowing how aggressive they were, he made sure to go around the rocks while also keeping an eye out for scorpions in the small patches of weeds.

Dust and pebbles fell on his head when he was halfway around the gorge. He shook it off his hair and looked up, covering his squinted eyes so the sun wouldn't blind him. He spotted a woman walking along the cliff, her body hugged against the wall and her feet pressed tightly together. Her painted face was covered in dust and her glossy black hair was unkempt, as if she had just woken up. She even had a spider crawling up one of her braids though it seemed that she didn't notice. She wore a strapless dress which was slightly torn and decorated with a saber-toothed cat that lurked in the grass. The man didn't know what she was doing up there; he believed that there could only be two reasons why she was doing something so dangerous: she was brave or she was planning to jump.

"Excuse me miss," the man called out as his forehead began to sweat, "what are you doing up there?"

The woman didn't respond. _Perhaps, she didn't hear me,_ the man thought. He placed his hands around his mouth to mimic a megaphone and tried again. "Hello? Are you okay up there?"

The woman took a deep breath and as she continued to move, she nearly slipped. Her left boot plummeted to the ground next to the man, which made him jump. Her heartbeat was rapid; she had already written out her suicide note and planned her death millions of times in her head but she was too frightened to actually commit the suicide. _My neck will snap instantly, _she kept saying to herself_, I'm not gonna feel any pain._

She looked down once more, bit her lower lip, and closed her eyes. _I can't go on living anymore… No one will even care…_

The man walked up to the wall of the canyon and placed his hands on a ledge to climb up to where the woman was. Despite his acrophobia, he climbed cautiously, one limb at a time. An eagle swooped down and let loose a couple of feathers the landed in his mouth, nearly causing the man to fall back when he was halfway up to where the woman was. He spat the brownish feathers of the bird as he continued to resist the temperature of the rock. He was slightly thirsty and there was there was no moisture in the arid air to cool his tongue.

He had reached the same level that the woman was on and embraced the wall, his eyes barely opened.

"It's not safe up here. You should come down," he said as he offered a hand in the opposite direction and then in the direction of the woman. _Which is exactly why I'm climbed up here._

He couldn't help it; it was in his instincts to preserve and provide for the forms of life that existed in the world. Despite his offering, she would not budge. _Don't even try to save me. It's too late for that._

She removed her hands from the side of the cliff and allowed herself to fall, feeling her life fading before her eyes. The man quickly responded to the danger by grabbing her arm before it was out of reach. He held her arm tightly, even though she had tried to slip out of his grasp.

_No! Please… Just let go of me! _the woman begged and she cried a little as she used her other hand to push herself away. Her efforts were in vain, however, as the man had pulled her back up onto the ledge safe and very much _alive_. With an arm locked around hers, he descended slowly and although the woman struggled, he continued down the cliff.

"Why?! Why didn't you just let me fall? Don't you get that I _want _to die?!" the woman complained, continuing to jerk around as the fall from the current location was still lethal.

"Do you really? Suicide isn't necessarily the answer," he preached as the woman escaped his lock-like grip with a few worm-like motions. Rather than just jumping off, she began to question the man's motives.

"Why do you even care if I kill myself or not?" she asked scrupulously as she scrutinized the young man, taking note of the bloody parasites on his legs. "And what's with the leeches?"

"I care about all living things and I allow the leeches to be there so that they may have their meal for the next three months," he replied nonchalantly with a slight smile on his face. The woman was a bit shocked at what he had said; no one before had ever shown her any interest or kindness.

"Well, no one cares about me," she muttered as she crossed her arms and bled a tear that hung itself on top of her painted lip. She quickly wiped it off and stated, "I'm gonna jump off again."

"No you're not," the man said blatantly as he merely stared at the woman, confident that she wouldn't jump. She looked at the ground around a hundred feet below and thought, _he's right, I'm not gonna jump off. I already planned to jump off, but was I going to jump off? Well, yeah, I was going to jump off a few seconds ago, but he came here. He's not stopping me now, so… why can't I do this now?_

"I thought so." The man smiled triumphantly as he took another step down and offered his hand to the woman. Without any reluctance, she gave the man her hand, though she was dumbfounded.

_No one has ever been nice to me; what's wrong with him? If he knew how I was like before, things would be different. I still want to know: who the hell is he?! _To satisfy her inquiry a bit, she asked the man, "What's your name?"

"My name is Hiruko. If I may, I'd like to know your name as well so I'd have something to call you by," Hiruko answered as he and the woman were nearing the ground.

The woman swallowed and after a few hesitant seconds, she spoke, "Minerva. My name is Minerva."

_That's a cool name, Minerva. It sounds like the name of a goddess._ For the last two feet above ground that remained, Hiruko draped Minerva over his shoulder and jumped down. He checked his legs to make sure the leeches were intact and once he realized that they were, he sighed with relief.

"So, Minerva, where do you live? I'd like to accompany you to make sure that you don't try anything rash again."

Minerva had a sullen look on her face; she didn't really live anywhere after the disbanding of her guild, Sabertooth. She couldn't make up a lie, so she had to be straightforward with her answer.

"I don't live anywhere," she stated bluntly.

"Well, it doesn't look like you've been living at all, if you're contemplating suicide. You should join a guild," Hiruko suggested, though it didn't help Minerva much. He noticed that Minerva didn't take too kindly to that and quickly added, "If you want, you can follow me around."

The latter option was more ideal for Minerva, as she wasn't ready for another guild to abandon her. _He actually cares for me, _Minerva thought_, no one ever cared for me. But should I go with him? I'm not sure…_

"I don't know why no one would care about you, Minerva; there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you and I don't mind having a travelling companion."

Minerva laughed a bit in her head, thinking of the times she tortured Sting and Rogue, among other people. _Poor Hiruko, he doesn't know anything, but he's willing to befriend me and a friend is something I never had. I don't want to end up doing something I'll regret later. Maybe I will be his friend…_

"I'll come along with you," Minerva declared, trying to hide her enthusiasm. Hiruko smiled and without saying another word, he and Minerva continued walking wherever the wind carried them.


End file.
